Billionaire Carlos Slim Bought Up 2 Smaller Energy Stocks
By Ed Lin
Jan 25, 2024, 9:40 am EST
A firm controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú just paid more than $300 million to become the largest investor in Talos Energy and PBF. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú just made a big energy bet in two relatively small U.S. companies.
A firm controlled by the Slim family, Control Empresarial de Capitales, paid a total of more than $300 million for more shares of two energy companies—oil-and-gas producer Talos Energy and refiner PBF Energy —which have market values of about $1.6 billion and $5 billion, respectively. The family is now the largest shareholder of both companies.
Control Empresarial paid $230 million on Jan. 17 for 19.7 million shares of Talos, an average price of $11.70 each. According to a form the family filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Control Empresarial now owns 34.7 million Talos shares, a stake of 22.6%.
A spokesman for the Slim family’s businesses declined to comment.
Control Empresarial paid a total of $75 million from Jan. 12 through 17 for 1.8 million more shares of PBF. It now owns 14.3 million PBF shares, a stake of 11.7%.
Slim and his family are loading up on shares that had lackluster performances in 2023. Talos and PBF stock both materially underperformed the broader market, falling 25% and rising 7.8% while the S&P 500 index gained 24%. The relative performance of Talos and PBF peers also lagged behind the market.
Talos stock also underperformed those of peers in the Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy exchange-traded fund, of which it is a component. The ETF tacked on a 2.3% gain in 2023.